With the rising costs and environmental concerns associated with fossil fuels, renewable energy sources have become increasingly important, and in particular, the production of renewable transportation fuels from the conversion of biomass feedstocks. Many different processes have been, and are being, explored for the conversion of biomass to biofuels and/or specialty chemicals. Some of the existing biomass conversion processes include, for example, combustion, gasification, liquefaction, enzymatic conversion, and thermo-catalytic or pyrolytic conversion. Upgraded pyrolytic or upgraded thermo-catalytic bio-oils are of current focus as blendstocks for transportation fuels. The quality of such bio-oils and fractions, as reflected from their measured properties, are critical with regard to eventual blending with conventional fuels. Such properties for the bio-oil or upgraded bio-oil can include viscosity, total acid number (TAN), density, wt % oxygen measured on a dry basis, wt % water, wt % carbon, wt % hydrogen. Fractions from such bio-oil or upgraded bio-oil can include at least some of the properties listed above, and can further include Motor Octane Number, Research Octane Number, and cetane number. These properties are typically measured using standardized analytical techniques, which can be expensive to run. In addition, such tests are typically time consuming, generally taking 30 minutes or more to complete. Due to this delay in acquiring analytical results, it would be extremely difficult to use such standardized analytical techniques to either: 1) control a bio-oil production process (including upgrading) or 2) control a blending process wherein fractions of such bio-oil are blended with conventional fuels.
Accordingly, there remains a need for an improved and efficient method for determining properties of either: 1) a bio-oil produced from a thermo-catalytic or pyrolytic conversion of biomass or 2) a fuel blended from a conventional fuel and a fraction of such bio-oil.